Intended for healthcare professionals

News Roundup [abridged Versions Appear In The Paper Journal]

GMC opposes EU proposal to allow greater freedom of movement for doctors

BMJ 2002; 325 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.325.7368.795 (Published 12 October 2002) Cite this as: BMJ 2002;325:795
  1. Rory Watson
  1. Brussels

    Health and social care regulators in the United Kingdom have joined forces to lobby against draft European Union legislation on the recognition of professional qualifications, arguing that the legislation poses a severe threat to the safety of patients.

    The new rules are designed to make it easier for various professionals—doctors, midwives, pharmacists, nurses, architects, and others'trained in one EU country to work elsewhere in the union.

    Under the proposal, healthcare professionals from one member state would be allowed to practise in another for up to four months a year, every year, without being registered with a regulating authority.

    Critics of the scheme maintain this would prevent regulators from taking action against a person if a problem arose in a particular case. Nor would they be able to prevent the professional repeating …

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